Believe it or not, China has an entire weather-modification department devoted to trying to stop rain for the opening night of the Olympics. Will they succeed?

Posted by Gerardo Orlando as Domestic Politics, Economy, Energy, Environment, Sports at 7:53 pm

With pollution out of control, the Chinese government needs to do something to improve the air during the Olympics. Otherwise, they’re going to have lots of sick athletes and their glorious PR campaign will fall flat. The solution? Force factories to stop production in the weeks leading up to the games.

Posted by Gerardo Orlando as Domestic Politics, Economy, Energy, Environment at 10:22 pm

China will be building a new nuclear power plant.

Posted by Gerardo Orlando as Energy at 4:17 pm

The Chinese are being very aggressive in Africa looking for more sources of oil:

Just how wild is the bidding for good oil acreage these days? Over-the-top wild, to judge by a late May auction of tracts in the Congo Basin, off the coast of Angola. To land the licenses needed to explore three deepwater zones, oil companies from Italy, China, and elsewhere offered to pay an astronomical $3.1 billion in up-front fees (known in the industry as signature bonuses), plus $240 million to build schools and other social projects for the impoverished African country. To give a sense of the price inflation involved, in 1999, Angolan tracts in even deeper water brought in up to $350 million. The May bids were “the highest ever offered for exploration acreage anywhere in the world,” says Catriona O’Rourke, an analyst at Edinburgh consultants Wood Mackenzie, which has published an analysis of data provided by the Angolans.

Posted by Gerardo Orlando as Economy, Energy at 4:41 pm

Erica S. Downs writes a very interting column in Business Week explaining how oil is affecting China’s relationship with the United States. She cites several examples:

The two most prominent spots where China’s search for oil collides with American interests are the Sudan (the largest source of foreign production for Chinese companies) and Iran (China’s No. 3 supplier of crude imports). While Washington sees a major power using its permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council to frustrate efforts to halt genocide in Darfur and to slow international action to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions, Beijing sees international policies of limited efficacy that might jeopardize its oil supply.

So far, China has weighed its oil interests against the interests of the international community on a case-by-case basis. In the case of Sudan, the scales have tipped in favor of oil. Beijing weakened the language of at least one Security Council resolution to punish the Sudanese government for the atrocities in Darfur, but recently agreed to the deployment of U.N. forces there if supported by the African Union. In the case of Iran, which requires balancing competing interests such as oil, regional stability, and the Sino-American relationship, Beijing has sided with the international community to date. China voted as a member of the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency in February, under pressure from Washington, to report the Iran nuclear issue to the U.N. and supported the July 31 Security Council resolution threatening sanctions if Iran does not halt uranium enrichment. However, deeper energy ties to Iran (the No. 2 holder of global oil and gas reserves) might tempt Beijing to tip the scales in the other direction.

Posted by Gerardo Orlando as Economy, Energy, Foreign Policy, Trade, U.S. Relations at 5:11 pm